Thawing Out : )

12/26.
This was the last decent day I had until New Year's Eve. I picked Christian up from the airport and we hung out with Debbie and Gary later on at Spot. I'm going to miss Gebra...

12/27-30.
The move was in one word: grueling. It took days to throw away, give away, sell, leave by the curb, or pack everything I own. I managed to sell my old Volvo for next to nothing, which is fine with me because it took 40 minutes with jumper cables to get it running. Then, after a night of sleeping on the floor since all the furniture was gone, Christian and I hit the road. The trip was very, very long. I did all the driving due to the unfortunate combination of a small car and Christian being insanely tall. Drove 6.5 hours from Buffalo to NJ, where we visited some of Christian's relatives and stayed the night. Then the next morning 18 hours straight to Orlando. Total travel time: 24.5 hours; Time of arrival: 3am; Hour long traffic jams: 2; Speeding tickets: 1; Getting to Orlando: Priceless. I'm glad to be down here finally! I'm just kind of hanging out for a few days before looking for a job. I hear Buffalo isn't too cold nowadays... 37 is nothing, right?

12/31.
New Year's Eve, I hung out with J'Lynn and Randal. It's been at least five years when J'Lynn and I last saw each other in Orlando. It's gotten huge and more upscale looking. We went downtown and saw the orange drop. It looked like a big basketball falling five feet really slowly. But, hey, I got to see something drop and it was the most New Yearsy thing I've done in many years. We had a good time watching people, some of them very scantily clad, carouse through the streets in their drunken reverie. A bear - well, ok, a guy in a bear costume - guzzled down five beers in a beer bong. We saw him on his knees later in the middle of the crowd. Poor bear...

1/1
New Year's day, I had a nice visit with my dad. We had lunch, went grocery shopping at a Chinese-Vietnamese grocery store on Colonial or Mills, consolidated some of my stuff at the house because they'll be moving soon, and talked about, among other stuff, what my grandparents' parents did. Very interesting. We also talked to someone he works with and got the name of the person with Legal Aid. I'm considering the bar because that may be the smartest thing to do. Who knows... I'm going to start applying starting Monday.

1/2
I didn't get lost! I drove to Discount Auto Parts, Waterford Lakes, and the Fashion Square Mall and didn't get lost! Why is it that I went to 10 shoe stores and could not find one pair of size 5.5 comfortable, leather, thongless, brown or black, sandals with a slight heel. Is that really so much to ask for? I guess so since I couldn't any.

1/3
Christian and I visited Lila and Alice. We had coffee with Lila and helped Alice move in. It was really good to see them.

1/4
I took the dog Kata up to Jay Blanchard Park at 9am and jogged for a bit. I would've stayed longer if Kata hadn't been a maniac, pulling on the leash so hard it looked like I was abusing her. It got too annoying after a while. After that, I did a whole lot of nothing. Later on, J'Lynn and I are going to shop for some officey/interviewy type of clothes.